Comments on: Attack of the Troll-Breeders

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 09 Mar 2024 13:38:06 +0000

I actually put my hairdresser (and his independent salon) on Yelp with a glowing review. He has received multiple calls asking if he wants to purchase advertisting on their site and has declined every time – and yet my glowing review is still there. I asked him if the Yelp sales department was annoying him and he said no (especially since he started getting new customers because of my review).

Not every restaurant is going to please every person. Calling everyone who gives a negative review a “troll” just because you disagree is childish.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Wed, 07 Mar 2024 18:15:21 +0000

I gave up FB for Lent. Thank God (literally) because out of internet boredom I ran across yelp just yesterday. I immediately went and gave perfect reviews to all my favorite 12 or 13 places around where I live because they deserve the good word. Then I went and gave a horrible review to one of the few businesses in my entire life that screwed me (pun intended, per your article). Sure enough, several other yelpers had the same thing to say. Coincidence? I think not. Thanks to yelp, last night I ate the best burger in my life last night at a joint near my house that I never considered trying. Yelp is a total success in my book

By: Gary Wise

Gary Wise — Fri, 02 Mar 2024 15:41:15 +0000

Sensationalist bollocks.

BTW, used my real name as always.

By: J. R.

J. R. — Fri, 24 Feb 2024 02:59:45 +0000

Thanks for posting the article and spreading awareness about this; I had no idea this was the case. Sure enough, after checking a couple highly regarded restaurants that basically everyone with an opinion raves about, I checked Yelp and found numerous 1 and 2 star reviews (I encourage every other reader to think of a couple winners they know, and try the same experiment). The bias is very clear, now that you mention it, but before, I would’ve just thought new places had something wrong with them. Now I understand why there’s so much negativity where it doesn’t really seem to belong.

By: Dean

Dean — Thu, 23 Feb 2024 11:16:13 +0000

Nice article, but it slaps the honest Yelp reviewer in the face too.
Trolls are easy to spot on the site, as are the glowing gushing brother-in-law fake praise reviews. Your assumptions that most review readers can’t tell the difference is unfair too.
I post reviews to Yelp and try to be honest about my experience, without personally attacking the owner or server: it’s about the food and dining experience for me, and that’s all most of us on Yelp do.
Trolls use Avatars and masked user names, the rest of us show our faces, use real names, and often share more private info and way too many photos than necessary.
Thanks for shining a light on Yelp’s marketing practices, that was helpful to know.